Installing tools - part 2

Time to looks at MO2 (Mod organizer2), Wrye Mash, Mlox and tes3merge. Your new best modding friends.

✨Mlox

Mlox is a crucial tool in ensuring that mods are loaded in the correct order. A bad load order can easily break mods, so it's important to get this right. LOOT, the alternative programme does not know what to do with recent mods.

To use Mlox, simply drop the file you downloaded earlier into your Morrowind folder and double-click to execute it.

Once Mlox is open, click on "Update Load Order" if needed.

• The Message Box is a helpful tool, but remember that Mlox checks for EVERY rule connected to your modlist and may include warnings about plugins you haven't installed. Therefore, it's important to carefully read the information and check that it's relevant before taking any action.

• This fork of Mlox is self-updating, so you won't have to worry about getting the program's latest version or the mod load order rules.

✨TES3cmd 0.40

Tes3cmd is an incredibly powerful tool that provides a comprehensive analysis of plugins and offers various reports on the mods installed in Morrowind. We'll be using it through Wrye Mash to clean mods.

• Extract into Data Files.

✨Wrye Mash

IN-DEPTH WRYE MASH GUIDE > HERE <

Wrye Mash is a versatile mod management tool that helps with various tasks such as checking plugins and managing saved games. With Wrye Mash, we can check whether the esp and masters are synchronised, register bsa, and most importantly, repair any issues with saved games.

Download "Wrye Mash 2021 - x64 - beta6 - manual installation archive" or x86 depending on your system.

Extract into your Morrowind folder.

Open the new Mopy folder and find mash64.exe. Double-click to run it.

All Wrye Mash needs to know is:

1. Where your Morrowind is

2. Where Mlox (you have a handy "detect Mlox" button.

3. Where the mods you'll download are. Just select Morrowind/Mopy as we won't be using this feature of Wrye Mash.

There isn't much to it right now. Look under the "mods" tab to see and select the mod. By default, Morrowind.esm, Tribunal.esm and Bloodmoon.esm are selected since they are the base game. The GoG version comes with the official plugins that you can also select for now.

Look at the bottom left corner of Wrye Mash, you'll recognise the Mlox icon. Click on it to sort your newly selected mods.

There's also a shortcut for Morrowind, but it's still not the one we'll be using!

Finally, because we have tes3cmd, we can now clean mods directly from Wrye Mash:

select one or multiple mods, right-click, select "clean with TES3cmd"

if you have MANY mods, the process will take a while.

(Yes, the official Bethesda plugins are not clean))

✨tes3merge

The tes3merge tool allows you to merge changes made by different plugins to the same game data. It compares all the plugins in your load order and identifies any conflicts or overlapping changes. Then, it creates a new plugin that combines all the modified data into a single plugin file. This process helps reduce plugin conflicts and ensures that your mods work together.

I made a video explaining what merging lists and objects is.

Create a tes3merge folder in your Morrowind folder and extract the content of the archive there.

Locate tes3merge.exe and double-click.

Let it do its things

You'll notice a new plugin has appeared in your Data Files folder: Merged Objects.